Tiger Woods will aim to complete his first PGA Tour event in nearly 14 months, following a string of injuries and health battles, but it’s a tournament he’s won five times before

Tiger Woods’ biggest test at the Masters will be walking all 72 holes at hilly Augusta National, according to his former coach Butch Harmon.

The 15-time Grand Slam champion is set to make his return to competitive action in the first Major of the season next week. Woods, now 48, has not finished a PGA Tour event for nearly 14 months after pulling out of the Masters in the third round last year then withdrawing from the Genesis Invitational in February.

The American superstar nearly had his lower right leg amputated following his February 2021 car crash in Los Angeles and has struggled to walk since. Harmon, now 80, worked with Woods from 1993-2004 when he won his first eight Majors.

And the Sky Sports analyst does not doubt the world No. 950’s ability to play his way round the course where he has won five times.

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But Harmon admitted how well Woods will compete this week is “the million-dollar question”. The Las Vegas-based coach added: “I think we can expect Tiger’s game to be pretty sharp; he wouldn’t play if he didn’t think he was. The problem is, can he walk? That’s one of the hardest walking golf courses that we play all year long. It’s very hilly, a lot of side hill lies and uneven lies.

“If you remember our telecast last year, when he made the cut, I actually said on air on Sky that as much as we love having Tiger in the field, I really wish he hadn’t made the cut because I didn’t think he could walk another 18 holes, and it turned out he couldn’t.

“Now we all know with Tiger you never say never. I can remember back in 2019, everyone asked me if Tiger Woods could ever win the masters, and I said I doubted it because he hadn’t played, but all you’ve gotta do is tell him he can’t do something and he will try and prove you wrong. That’s his mentality, that’s one of the reasons he was the best in the world. You know we all love it when he plays; he brings another level of excitement.”

Last year he made the cut at Augusta for the 23rd consecutive time to tie the all-time record with Gary Player and Fred Couples before pulling out with plantar fasciitis. And Harmon said we will be able to judge Woods chances of completing the tournament even before he tees up for his 26th Masters on Thursday

“It will be very interesting to see in the practice rounds how he walks, how he handles the hills and just watching how he handles that,” he said. “I would say, knowing him, his game will be okay from tee to green. I don’t know how his nerves are going to be with the short game even though he has one of the best short games in the world, but having not been in competition at all, it’s difficult. You can’t turn it on and off. It always has to be on. But I think the big question is, physically, could he possibly walk 72 holes or more when you consider practice rounds at Augusta National? We won’t know that until we see him.

Woods stated in December that his aim was to play once a month this season including the Majors. But withdrawing at Augusta again this year will raise serious questions about retirement for a player who said he never wanted to become a “ceremonial golfer”.

Harmon added: “Tiger has never been a player who plays for the sake of playing. He doesn’t tee it up unless he’s 100 percent confident in his ability to compete to give himself a chance. This is going to be a very good indication of whether he can do that or not because of the stamina required to walk all those hills and play the uneven lies that make it difficult when the body is not 100 percent. From what little I’ve seen of his swing, it looks pretty good. It’s whether he can handle the physical strain of walking all these holes on one of the hilliest golf courses we play. He knows how to get around Augusta but the big question is will his body allow him to become Tiger Woods again.”

The Masters will be available on Sky Sports Golf and via a NOW subscription from 11 th – 14 th April, and you can follow all the latest news on News gist daily social and digital channels throughout the week.